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Category Archives: FatnessInGeneral

In dealing with the “encouragers” who want you to eat less, move more, and maybe have a few organs amputated to lose weight:

These fat hating types don’t know you and they don’t want to. They don’t care to know if you are or aren’t doing sit ups or exercising or what you really eat. And they don’t care. Their objective is to make you feel bad for being fat. It’s that simple. They’re sadists and nothing but suffering satisfies them.

These assholes will scream “why don’t you get on a treadmill fatty!” even if you’ve just gotten off one. They’ll just shout, “Stay on longer until you’re thin, lard ass!” They don’t care if you just found out you’re 25lbs lighter, even. So long as you are fat, they hate you and want you to suffer.

But when you figure that out, things can come into focus. You can start understanding that you’re not gonna argue your way to them being lesser douchewads than they were. They will never not hate you. That makes them the one with something deeply wrong about them, not you.

The winning move here is simple (but not easy): live the happiest and best life you can right this minute, as you are. Be good to others and yourself, try your hardest, and enjoy as much as you can about being on this Earth while you are here.

Sadists hate your happiness, so I suggest cultivating as much of it as you can, as you are, right this minute, as you are.

If you’re reading this, I hope you look at the options at Amplestuff, Oversize Solutions, or Amazon.com. Amazon also has an option that works with toilet paper or a wet wipe, with a button release for sanitary disposal. There are also portable bidets available at Amplestuff and, again, Amazon.com. (This is FYI only, I don’t have actual experience with any of these devices.)

CW network national daytime talk show is looking for BIG people with BIG personalities who are fighting with a family member and need the insults to stop! Must be in conflict with a family member/partner and be available April 30th-May 1st!!! If selected you will receive an ALL EXPENSE PAID TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY!!!!

CALL OR TEXT THE SHOW’S PRODUCERS TODAY: 646-701-3207 OR 646-853-0549

***You must be in conflict with a family member/loved one due to weight***

Why do I think this is looking to turn into a family screaming / “intervention” and “Yes I will rededicate myself to becoming thin!!!” cryfest?

I don’t fly very often. This is likely why it I didn’t go through a full-body security scanner until Friday and, again, today. I don’t have strong opinions about the type of scanning used, although I do consider much of the airport security approach to be security theater. So I did the scanner instead of other measures.

Image from Wikipedia

These were the millimeter wave scanners. The opening is narrower than the machine. I turned sideways to get in. Otherwise I fit fine. Each time the machine flagged me for pat downs afterward on my thighs, just above my knees. The second time also included pat downs of my tummy, back and bottom. I was always patted down by a woman – no waiting.

Scrolling back, I saw Melissa’s prior tweet was regarding Dylan Farrow: “I am speaking about this because it is wrong; I am speaking in solidarity with Dylan Farrow; I am speaking in defense of my own survival.”

This blew me away.

In retrospect it seems silly — of course people often have their own agendas on the internet! — but we often want to stay neutral and avoid “taking sides.” Especially in matters of activism, we want to be one of the good guys, to avoid self-interest. It’s not that I’m getting something out of this, it’s that it’s the right thing to do.

Self-interest is not necessarily wrong. Yet people often try to put it aside, to derive credibility from their neutrality. I’m one of them.

Yes, I have an agenda in my choice to live life at my current weight instead of trying, yet again, to win the weight-loss lottery. Yes, when I discuss weight-loss scams, it’s because I consider selling such frauds to be unethical, unhealthy, and wrong. Yes, rejecting the decade-plus I spent dieting has done wonders for my mental and physical health.

So yes, if you’ve wondered what my agenda is in writing about weight — there it is.

My name is Lisa. I have been following your blog from quite some time now and thoroughly enjoy every post of yours.

Well, after reading through your blog, I think you would be interested in having a look at our recently launched infographic “America’s Battle With Obesity”([link to typical FEAR The Obesity Epidemic Because We Said So FEAR Booga Booga removed – Ed]). If you find it helpful, then please consider it for sharing with your readers.

Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon!
Best Wishes,Lisa

My reply:

Dear Lisa,

I really don’t see how anyone who’s read my blog would think that graphic would be of any interest to the my readers.

[S]o many fat people lacked any experience of being treated with dignity and respect in a retail setting. It wasn’t just me. And if it wasn’t just me, then maybe I didn’t deserve to be mocked and harassed and made fun off. Maybe I didn’t deserve to be treated badly just because of my body.

Now, yes, most fat people aren’t very fat; most cutoffs are 300 or 350lbs; air ambulances appear to have lower-than-typical requirements.

But what can you do? Some ideas:

Ask your local hospital about their equipment.

Ask you local doctor about their equipment.

Ask local fat friends about their experiences.

Research what is available and ask for it to be considered when new purchases are made.

If there is an organization that fundraises for your local hospital, consider joining.

I wouldn’t expect any of these to have an immediate effect, and some are long-term commitments. These are also biased toward people who have the time, money, education, and (possibly) public speaking skills to succeed.

Finally, you can move to an area with more choices. This is definitely a long-term choice, and one that may also be impossible. But it may work for some.

[I]n a country battling obesity and high rates of heart disease and diabetes, they say, governments should be doing everything possible to get people up and moving.

Note this dispute isn’t about a specific “anti-obesity” program. This is about small businesses using public parks, or even privately owned areas open to the public, to offer private fitness classes.

Obesity isn’t the actual story. The story is a clash between those who enjoy taking or offering open-air classes and those who’d like to enjoy the park without them. It’s also about small businesses that want to offer classes without having to rent space and the need for the parks to be available to all.* The “but we need to fight obesity, heart disease & diabetes” is thrown in as an appeal to the public interest. Why? Because being fat is assumed to be bad, to be wrong, to be against the public interest.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a seat belt extender for my car (provided by Toyota). In other cars I often use a shoulder/lap belt as a lap belt only, which is less safe, but the only way I can buckle the seat belt. The friend I carpool with recently got a new car, and once again, the seat belt is too small — it was tight even with the shoulder belt behind me.

So I started googling and discovered there’s more available out there than the last time I checked.. In particular, there’s more alternatives to the “permanently install item in the car” items. An important question for “click-in” extenders is the size and type of the metal tongue. Type A has a 7/8″ wide metal tongue. Another is type B, with a 1″ wide metal tongue. Between the two they will fit most cars.

I ended up ordering a 2-Pack of Car Seat Belt Extenders, 1 type A and another type B. Thanks to the 7/8″ extender I was able to wear the 3-point seat belt properly in my carpool yesterday. I also intend to take them with me if I’m renting a car.

Update: Turns out my carpool buddy asked about extenders while buying the car at the dealership and picked some up today gratis. :) I’m still glad I have some for travel but was definitely a nice move on the Ford dealership’s part.

Tonight I overheard some thin 20somethings discussing fat people as a group (nothing said about the 40ish couple at a nearby table). The terms and statements made were rather derogatory. There was laughter. Then their discussion moved to other topics.

Image courtesy of Stocky Bodies

This wasn’t pleasant. I tweeted about it. I then focused on dinner with the man of the house.

Why?

In the microcosm of this hour and this room, their comments did not necessarily have to affect me. Their opinions did not cause me to lose my job or my home. And their finding fat people unsexy doesn’t undo what we did this morning. ;)

At the same time, however, the anti-fat views expressed by a group at a bar encourages and reinforces anti-fat views at the societal level. Society’s view that anyone can lose weight, and that fat people are stupid or in denial or lazy to not be thin, makes it less likely that I will be hired than a thin person with my qualifications. Or that I’ll be paid as well as a thin person. It’s also part of why medical professionals view fat people as non-compliant and deficient, since we are “willfully” avoiding thinness. Etcetera.

Does it matter to me what a random stranger thinks of fat people? Individually, maybe not. But society’s view of fat people matters a great deal.

People complimented me on how much weight I was losing, how much prettier I looked, how much better I was.

They didn’t know something was wrong until I started passing out. And when my eating disorder finally came to light, it was largely seen as me going through a phase to be popular or noticed, much like with my cutting and suicide attempts.

Because, you know, depression and suicide and self-harm and eating disorders are only a phase.

Fat Acceptance proponents range from those who think that the link between fat and “obesity-related” diseases is overhyped and not looked at critically enough, to those who flat-out say that fat does not cause any diseases. (One problem with the latter statement is that just as correlation does not prove causation, it doesn’t disprove causation either; saying we don’t know for sure that fat causes* something does not mean that we know for sure it doesn’t cause something.)

Ah, the eternal question. What if you’re too big for plus size stores? In the US, LB is one of the most common plus size stores, going up to a US size 28. I’m too big for most of their clothes.

Today I’m going to not just talk about places I can buy clothes. I’m going for places that someone larger than I can buy clothes. I’m going to skip the stores where I’m at the top of the size range and highlight ones that offer a few sizes larger than mine. I also welcome reviews and suggestions in the comments.

In Myles Ahead sizes, I’m a 2 or 3x. Their sizes go up to 5x. They also have items in more conventional sizes up to 10X. Mostly casual and dressy clothes, along with some accessories.

Plus Woman goes from 1X-10X, with fairly conventional sizing for most things. At 4 or 5X, I’m in the middle of their range. They’re located in North Carolina and make a LOT of things to order and so you can customize size, fabric, and colors quite a bit. It can be more expensive.

I’m a 3x or 4x in Big on Batik clothes. Most of their clothing is available to 6x but some are 7X+, including swimsuits.

And, of course, there’s Making It Big. I’ve been buying their stuff for over a decade now. There’s casual, dressy, activewear, swimwear, outerwear …. and none of it is cheap, but it’s consistent and much of it is American-made. I’m a G/H (or 4X/5X) in their sizing, and they run up to size L (8X). As I type this Wednesday night I’m wearing a pair of brown size H corduroy pants I got from MIB years ago with a red “simple tee” in size G; yesterday I wore size H black relaxed knit pants with a purple “perfect tee” in size H; Monday I wore the same brown cords with a top from, gasp, a different company. No, they don’t pay me to advertise, and yes, I’ve paid for all my MIB stuff (some secondhand on eBay). (And if they don’t come out with the cords again I may need to clone the ones I’m wearing, damn it.)

So there is it — the list of stores that I know carries at least 2 sizes larger than my size. What have I missed? Got any warnings or reviews? Have at it.

Update: Ghastly G. Rotto reminds me through Twitter that Woman Within goes up to 7X in some things. I’m a 4X or 5X in their clothes, so Woman Within also fits the “2 sizes larger than I” rule even if they do use thin models.

One of video links going around Facebook of Jennifer Livingston linked to The Fat Nutritionist site for more information on fat acceptance. Michelle is handling the sudden influx with her usual grace, but if you want to help her cope with the many comments (or, y’know, just have some busy threads to watch) you might want to head over. :)

Oh! In non-FA, the ebook of Feed (Kindle Edition) is $1.99 for the month of October. Feed is by Mira Grant aka Seanan McGuire and it’s the best political zombie thriller about bloggers I’ve read. And I don’t even like zombies all that much! :)

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Hi there. I weigh about 400lbs. This blog is about my life and how it is and isn't affected by being very fat. 400 pounds, 400 lbs, 400 lb female, 400lbs female, 400lb fat woman, fat man, fat person, very fat, obese, obesity, morbidly obese, morbid obesity, super obese, super obese fitness, super obese exercise, super obesity, very obese, what it's like to be fat, what it's like to be obese, what is it like to be obese, what it's like to weigh 400lbs, living as a fat person, death fat, supersize, BBW, BHM, Health at Every Size, HAES.

The Categories drop-down below is good for browsing past posts. The links at top right address certain topics. To see what I look like, check out the pictures on the About page. An FAQ is here. You can also email me at Living400lbs AT gmail DOT com.